


Subject #001

by robin_orpheus



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Can't come up with any more tags, Character Study, Government Experimentation, Martin Brenner Being an Asshole, Short Story, Stranger things subject 001, Superpowers, subject 001 - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:55:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24943450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robin_orpheus/pseuds/robin_orpheus
Summary: Eight years of dedication. Eight years of hard work. Those eight years of struggle were now in the hands of a seven year old boy. Had they finally managed to create a human with superpowers? All they could do now was wait.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Short story about Dr Brenner and the first of the eleven experiments, Subject 001.
Kudos: 2





	Subject #001

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is the first ever fanfiction I've published. I write a bit (mostly in Swedish which is my native language) and sometimes in English. Just came up with this because I felt the urge to write a Stranger Things fanfic. Might write more in the future (hopefully some Robin x Kali stuff because even though they've never met I love the idea of them together). We'll see! Hope you enjoy. Finished writing this quite fast because I guess I was in the flow (a rarity). 
> 
> I guess this is a bit of a character study of Dr Brenner AKA Martin Brenner. Decided to just write Dr Brenner because it makes it more eerie and less personal than if I were to write his character's first name, in my honest opinion. Frankly I despise Dr Brenner because of y'know how he treated Eleven and for being a goddamn asshole. But I still find him fascinating. And I wanted to write from his perspective to try to understand why he did what he did. And it kinda makes sense why he's so emotionless about it and basically why he's so detached in treating an innocent child the way he did.
> 
> I hope you enjoy :)

“001? Are you ready?”  
A young boy with black hair and a buzzcut who was approximately seven years old nodded. 

Eight years of dedication. Eight years of hard work. Those eight years of struggle were now in the hands of a seven year old boy. Had they finally managed to create a human with superpowers? All they could do now was wait.

After the catastrophe surrounding MK-Ultra and its allegations the government still wanted to further pursue their interests in the field of human experimentation and created a new project. It was after all in the good interests of the country. 

Dr Brenner felt almost like a mad scientist. Maybe he was. That lust for power and knowledge engulfed him. A part of him warned that this was amoral. Wrong, awful, inhumane. The very small part of his brain that felt emotion tried holding him back. Make him feel an inch of sympathy for what he was doing to a child. One that deserved to grow up in a loving environment.

At first when he was first put in charge of the newly-established government project, he felt appalled. After some time he grew detached from it. Detached from his emotions. He told himself like a mantra over and over again that this was all for science. 

To him, subject 001 was a lab rat. When you were working on a scientific experiment, you couldn’t just let yourself grow emotionally attached to the rat you were experimenting on. Hence why the child was given the name 001 and not an actual name. Ties had to be cut. Otherwise life would be a hassle. 

Around him were other scientists. Taking notes, tracking the subject’s heart and pulse and so on. Vibrations from the machines stirred and filled uncomfortable silence. In contrast to Dr Brenner, some of his co-workers bore a look of fear in their eyes. But they said nothing, scared of what would happen if they did so. Would they be fired or worse, killed?

Nonetheless, if anything about child experimentation leaked out to the public, they’d have a blood bath on their hands. People would be enraged. Blinded by morals and ethics to see what good he and his colleagues were doing for the nation. Everyone present in that room and everyone working on the project - regardless of whether they thought what they were doing was good or bad - feared spilling the truth.

Behind the glass window that shielded Dr Brenner from the other side the young boy sat at a small square table. Above the boy’s head dangled a single lit lightbulb. 

Dr Brenner observed, deep in thought. The boy’s big blue eyes stared likestared like a deer caught in headlights. He was scared. Dr Brenner nodded. As if he were saying in his mind Go on. 

For one moment the boy hesitated. 

Dr Brenner felt the pressure of potential failure. Would they actually succeed? Would they be the first in the history of humanity to make science fiction a possibility? 

None of the scientists were even sure if the young child displayed any sorts of powers. Though they had some theories as to what it could be. The guards had stated that there had been a recent amount of flickering lights on the premise. Perhaps light manipulation. 

Dr Brenner stayed away from any final ideas. He had to wait until he was one hundred percent sure. And then they could begin to train their superweapon.

Come on…  
Come on….

The lightbulb flickered.

One.

Two.

Three.

A moving shadow emerged in the room. Appearing seemingly out of nowhere. The light above Subject zero’s head flickered again and again. One moment everything was bright. Then came the dark. In an instant the light coming from the lightbulb above faded out. 

“Fascinating…”

Despite the sudden disappearance of light, he could still see Subject zero through squinting eyes and with the help of the light coming from his side of the window.

There was a shadow around the boy. A small one, but the boy seemed to be in charge of it. Controlling it. As he moved his hand, the shadow followed. And in the corners of the room there was darkness.

The other scientists in the room gasped, just as mesmerized as Dr Brenner was.

The light reappeared. And the shadows were gone. Blood dripped from Zero’s nose which the boy wiped away with his wrist. 

“Did.. did I do okay?” 001 asked. The boy looked fatigued and pale.

Dr Brenner smiled, feeling proud.

“Yes, yes you did.” Dr Brenner nodded. 

And Subject zero smiled.

They had succeeded. At last! But there was more to come. More experiments and tests to run. More things to figure out. And not to mention an enemy to defeat.

This was just the beginning.

And what came thereafter he would have never anticipated.

The End

**Author's Note:**

> Initially this was going to be a 30 day drabble challenge. But I got way ahead of myself and wrote more than 100 words (the usual length of a drabble). So I decided to just roll with it. The first prompt was "Beginning" and this is what I managed to come up with. If any of y'all are interested in the actual challenge and its prompts, here's a link: http://www.mibba.com/Stories/Read/502463/30-Day-Drabble-Challenge/
> 
> The list of prompts was not created by me so all credits to whoever created it.
> 
> Have a good day, pals!


End file.
